little hard to tell the houses themselves apart when the decorations were so elaborate. They were in all shapes, makes, and sizes: hard plastic, inflatable, snow and ice, wire frame, animatronic, and just about every conceivable mix of the above. He didn't know it, but Bunnyburrow was at the height of their annual Christmas décor contest – and many of the families also strove to make their houses stand out for visiting relatives.

"Is that an actual working ferris wheel?" he asked at one house – on the small side, which was to say it was only about the size of a modest college dorm. Out front, several bunnies were riding an inflatable ferris wheel.

Judy glanced over before returning her eyes to the road. "No, those are the Houstons – north country Houstons, that is. Some of their bunnies make me look sane."

Sure enough, an older doe came rushing out a moment later to chase the scamps off the ferris wheel. The mischievous dibbuns jumped off into the deep snow and scattered in all directions, undoubtedly in search of more ways to get on the Naughty list.

"North country Houstons," Nick repeated in wonder. "I'll never know how you keep up with all these families."

"Kind of have to," she shrugged. "I've got siblings-in-law mixed into most of them. Not the Houstons, though; them I know because in high school I kept getting compared to one of the West Side Houstons. Wonder what became of him?"

Nick barely heard her answer. He had gotten distracted by a three-story-tall Nativity scene. Pushing aside the thought that they could slip some dinosaurs in there and they'd blend right in, he shook his head and sipped a coffee he'd grabbed at the gas station; gingerbread flavor with a shot of all-natural peppermint. Knowing Judy, he was going to need the caffeine and sugar.

And if her family's wired anything like she is, I'd better make sure none of them get ahold of it, he thought to himself.

At long last, they came to the Hopps farm. Nick almost missed the sign amidst the bustle of activity around it. Although the whole of the farm had been given over to snow forts and sculptures, the main attraction was a vast snow castle looming behind the hand-painted sign trimmed with pine garlands.

'Snow castle,' by the way, was not an exaggeration. It had turrets, lines etched in the walls to simulate real stone, ice windows cut from a nearby pond, and overall looked like it had been built by frost giants rather than bunnies.

"How the heck did they build that?" he asked, pointing.

Alex, who had foregone further sleep to enjoy the lights, looked out and beamed a little. "Ah, the wonders achievable with enough paws," he replied. "Nothing to it, really. We just build up each story, carve out tunnels as we go, and bring the snow from inside up top to build the successive levels."

Nick almost dropped his coffee. "Story?" he echoed.

"Of course," Alex replied. "What's the point of a snow fort if you can't go inside it? You should have been here the year we built a scale model of the Great Pyramid; even got extra credit at school for it."

The fox was almost afraid to ask, "What scale?"

"Oh, just half; nothing fancy."

The trio stopped in a parking lot – yes, a parking lot, not a driveway – thick with vehicles from visiting relatives. The area around it was largely empty, with most of the visitors already in the house or over at the snow castle. Nick stepped out, privately hoping that Judy had forgotten about her little prank on her parents.

He might as well have hoped for Chief Bogo to show up at work in a 'Foxes Rule' T-Shirt. The bunny didn't even give him a chance to admire the Nativity Scene (rabbit sized, thank goodness) poised by the front door in a cave made of snow rather than the usual stable.

"Okay," Judy whispered, "how should we do this? Let's see, put your arm around me like this... yeah, right there. Hmm. You don't quite reach my waist. Could you pick me up?"

"Over my dead body," he answered.

"Well, the ribs, then; they'll get the message."

"I'll just go in the side door," Alex announced. Throwing the pair a wink, he teased, "Give you two lovebirds a little space."

"Taelia is going to kill me if she ever finds out," Nick muttered out the side of his mouth. "Assuming one of your relatives doesn't get me first."

Judy shook her head, clicking her tongue. "Tisk, tisk," she chided. "Aren't you ashamed? A big fox like you scared of a bunch of rabbits?"

"I work with you," he pointed out. "I have every reason to be scared of rabbits."

"Ooh," she said slyly, "I wonder if it counts as pranking if I don't use that one until after Christmas."

He blanched. "You promised to leave the carrot pen back in the city," he complained.

"Didn't say which one," she pointed out, holding up three.

He groaned. "Can we get on with this?"

Judy rang the doorbell and leaned her head into Nick's side.

"You owe me for this," he whispered.

The door opened. "Well, who do... we have... here?" asked Stu, staring in total stupification at the scene before him. The setup could not have been more perfect; even Nick's nervous grin seemed to underscore his image as a boyfriend very reluctantly pulled into a meeting with his girl's dad.

"Hi, Dad," Judy greeted cheerfully.

Stu raised one paw, more than a little uneasily. When he spoke, his words came haltingly as if from the mouth of a robot. "Hi. Come. On. In."

He didn't notice that Judy had strategically placed her phone in her coat's breast pocket – with the camera out and recording.

"Is that Judy?!" came a voice from inside. "Tell her to come... on in." Bonnie, coming into view around a corner, stopped and stared. "Judy?"

"Hi Mom. This is Nick. I told you about him, right?"

Bonnie fainted, and it was only by reflex that Stu caught her in time.

Nick glanced at Judy, deciding enough was enough. "You were right," he said as evenly as possible. "Best prank ever."

"Nick!" Judy exclaimed. "Why'd you blow it early?!"

He just smirked. Sly fox: one, he thought. Dumb bunny: zero.

Nick might not have been so smug if he had been able to read minds. It was no surprise that some of the younger rabbits who saw him disappeared around corners, and in the Hopps household it wasn't even so strange when one of them pulled out a walkie-talkie.

"Eyes to Ears," she reported. "Judy's here, and you're not gonna believe who her boyfriend is. Over."

"Copy, Eyes. Does it change the plan any? Over."

'Ears' glanced back around the corner to where Nick was helping Mr. Hopps with a slumped Mrs. Hopps. It was hard to hear what they were saying, but she saw no reason to change plans.

"Negative," she reported. "Boyfriend is prime target. Maybe better than we hoped. Over."

"Copy that, Ears. Report to your station on the double. Over and out."

The Sisters Six were on the move.

Well, that's it for chapter one. My hope is to release one part of this story for each week of Advent – which, I'm sorry to say, is going to mean a hiatus on my other projects, and probably on my reading as well.

As a consolation to those who are still disappointed that Nick and Judy aren't together in this one, I will promise some mistletoe humor later.

I didn't write much of this chapter to music, but I will name two songs: Casting Crowns' "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," which has a very serious tone, and "Christmastime Down South" featuring Aaron Tippin (yeah, you saw what I did with the name in the chapter), which is much brighter and livelier. I'll suggest in advance that you may want to play the latter one at low volume in the background when you read the next chapter, to set the Hopps House mood.

Speaking of the Hopps House, how's Judy's family going to react to her and her little prank? Well, you'll have to keep reading to find out, so click that Follow button!

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